My dear friend An has recently moved interstate to start a new career. Sniff!

We had a farewell dinner for him a few weeks ago, which included many of his favourite food groups.

- crispy chicken fat
- gravy
- chocolate
- cream

Mmm... delicious.

Menu

Roast Chicken with Roast Potatoes (Nigel Slater's Real Cooking)
Baked Couscous with Summer Vegetables (Nigel Slater's Real Cooking)

Green Salad

Chocolate Cherry Trifle (Nigella's Feast)

Now, I've never come across a Nigel Slater recipe that doesn't taste good. However, in this one, the potatoes didn't turn out quite how I like them. Instead of being parboiled, roughed-up, and roasted in hot oil, they are cooked from raw in the pan with the chicken. They ended up being rather tough on the outside. I suppose next time, if I want the potatoes to soak up all the chickeney goodness whilst roasting, I'll parboil them first, so they get crisp rather than tough.

The couscous involves roasting some vegetables in the oven, adding a tin of tomatoes, some couscous, and letting it bake until the couscous is cooked through. It tasted very, very good.

And the finale was Nigella's amazing chocolate cherry trifle. Layers of chocolate cake, cherry jam, cherries, chocolate custard and whipped cream. Nigella says to grate dark chocolate over the top - don't bother, just crumble over a Flake! (Or a Flake Noir if you desperately want dark chocolate). It's way easier, doesn't dirty up a grater, and gives you delicious Flake crumbs to eat. Everybody wins!